Ed Miliband’s £8 minimum pay pledge won support at Labour conference yesterday — but only as a first step to the living wage.

The Labour leader promised to add an extra £1.50 per hour, around £60 per week, to the minimum wage by 2020 if his party wins the general election.

He said too many workers are “treading water” because they are not rewarded for hard work under the Tories.

“One in five of the men and women employed in Britain today do the hours, make their contribution, but find themselves on low pay,” said Mr Miliband.

Labour said their “clear long-term target” will give business enough time to plan for higher pay without shedding staff.

GMB general secretary Paul Kenny welcomed a “necessary first step” to reversing 15 per cent Con-Dem pay cuts.

He said: “It is important to shift the burden of dealing with low pay from taxpayers to the employers, many of whom are sitting on record levels of cash and profits.

“The transition must be real so that the increase is not paid with one hand and taken away with the other.”

The London living wage is 80p more than the £8 minimum proposed by Mr Miliband, while it is £7.65 across the rest of Britain.

And some delegates at Labour’s Manchester conference told the Star the plans did not go far enough.

Rochdale delegate and Unison member Anita Rotherwell said: “I think we should offer more. I would have liked to see it rise to at least £10 per hour.”

Welsh delegate Bernadette Horton said Labour’s offer would be “too little, too late” by 2020.

“An £8 mimum is what I’d expect to see in the first year of a Labour government,” she added.

Campaigning MP Tom Watson was pressed on whether Labour should make the living wage the minimum at a Unite fringe meeting.

With right-wing journalists looking on, he said: “If I say £8 is great it means our aspiration to pay the living wage is in some way dissolved, if I say it’s not good enough then they get their headlines tomorrow.

“So instead I’m going to say what a brilliant start it is that we’ve committed to an £8 minimum.”